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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28927773">I'll Be There Through It All (But Only If You Want Me To)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireMane15/pseuds/FireMane15'>FireMane15</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Titans (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, One Shot, Panic Attacks, Post-Season/Series 02, set about 2 weeks after season 2 finale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:33:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,733</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28927773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireMane15/pseuds/FireMane15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s thrashing about, whimpering between bouts of speaking Tamaranian words he can’t comprehend. </p>
<p>She looks so pained. It’s almost unbearable to watch. Would it be best to wake her up? Or to wait and see if the nightmare will pass into peaceful sleep?</p>
<p>He wants so badly to do what’s best for her, but doesn’t know what that is. He feels helpless, and it only reminds him more that they haven’t really talked. Talked about her, about her getting her memories back, about who she is, about whatever has been bothering her these past two weeks, about them.</p>
<p>/</p>
<p>Dick tries to comfort Kory after a nightmare.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson/Koriand'r</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I'll Be There Through It All (But Only If You Want Me To)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dick is pulled out of his sleep by strange noises. Whimpers. Words he doesn’t understand. He feels movement beside him. </p>
<p>When his brain fully wakes up, and his eyes open, he is able to discern what is happening: Kory is having a nightmare.</p>
<p>She’s thrashing about, whimpering between bouts of speaking Tamaranian words he can’t comprehend. </p>
<p>She looks so pained. It’s almost unbearable to watch. Would it be best to wake her up? Or to wait and see if the nightmare will pass into peaceful sleep?</p>
<p>He wants so badly to do what’s best for her, but doesn’t know what that is. He feels helpless, and it only reminds him more that they haven’t really talked. Talked about her, about her getting her memories back, about who she is, about whatever has been bothering her these past two weeks, about them.</p>
<p>Dick feels a deep sense that he knows her, just instinctively. He knows her essence, her soul. But he doesn’t know a lot of the details, of the specifics. He hasn’t gotten the time to. There is so much he wants to know about her. Chiefly among them, right now, is how to help her with a nightmare. Would she want him to wake her up? How does she like to be comforted?</p>
<p>And he feels helpless because he doesn’t know these things. Doesn’t know how best to help her. And he’s terrified of getting it wrong, of making a mistake. Because he really doesn’t want to screw things up, as he always seems destined to do. He doesn’t want to make any mistakes with her. She’s too important to him. Scarily important. Like she shouldn’t be this important to him in such a short amount of time. But she is, and he doesn’t want to mess that up.</p>
<p>So. To wake or not to wake?</p>
<p>He is saved from having to make a decision when Kory suddenly startles awake. She shoots up, panting hard, and looking around the room frantically with wide, terrified eyes. She doesn’t seem to register his presence.</p>
<p>She scrambles to sit on the edge of the bed, with her legs hanging off the side.</p>
<p>Her pants turn to desperate gasps. One of her hands moves to touch her throat as she hyperventilates, and tears leak out of her eyes.</p>
<p>Dick acts instinctively, with no traces of his earlier overthinking and indecision.</p>
<p>He hops off his side of the bed, and quickly makes his way around to hers. He puts a hand on her back, and pushes her back forward, so that her head is leaning over her legs. Then he squats in front of her. </p>
<p>Dick takes one of Kory’s hands, and places it over his bare chest, right over his heart, with his hand finding purchase on top of hers.</p>
<p>“Follow my breathing,” he tells her. </p>
<p>He takes deep, slow breaths, and feels his chest rise and fall, with their hands rising and falling with it.</p>
<p>She tries to follow him, but struggles. She’ll succeed for a few moments, steadying her breathing, before it quickens away, and she takes short, sobbing gasps as she struggles to breath. And then she’ll be able follow his breathing again, before falling back into the panic. Back and forth. Over and over again.</p>
<p>He needs to do more, can’t let her mind and body drift back into the panic.</p>
<p>He takes his other hand, and cups her cheek. He uses his hand to gently force her head slightly up, to get her gaze to meet his.</p>
<p>“Hey, hey, hey, look at me.”</p>
<p>She meets his gaze. He keeps his eyes straight on hers, as he continues his deep breathing. But her gaze, continues to bounce around, looking at him one moment, and then rapidly moving back and forth the next.</p>
<p>“Hey, hey, focus on me. Just on me. Okay?” he tells her softly. “It’s just you and me.”</p>
<p>Her eyes find his and stay there. They breathe together, their eyes never leaving each other’s. Kory’s breathing steadies, returning to normal, seemingly for good this time. But they continue like this for a few moments anyway.</p>
<p>After a while, Kory lifts her head up, and takes her hand off his chest. But tears still run down her cheeks.</p>
<p>Fuck, it kills him.</p>
<p>He goes to embrace her, to wrap her in his arms, but before he can, she bolts from the bed, so fast and so suddenly that Dick falls backwards on his ass.</p>
<p>She dashes towards the bathroom. And Dick hears the sound of her throwing up.</p>
<p>He quickly gets up and makes his way to the bathroom, to her.</p>
<p>He stands behind her, and gathers up her beautiful, glorious red hair in his hands, holding it in a ponytail, keeping it out of her face and away from the vomit. He manages to hold it all in one hand. He uses the other hand to rub his hand up and down her back, on the soft material of his t-shirt. </p>
<p>He hopes it’s reassuring. That he is offering her some comfort.</p>
<p>Only a minute later, she’s done. She flushes the toilet, and leans her head against the porcelain for a few seconds. </p>
<p>As she stands up on shaky legs, he lets go of her hair, and lets his hand fall from her back.</p>
<p>Her eyes run across his bathroom sink.</p>
<p>“Uh, do you have, uh...” Kory stumbles, calmer but still disoriented.</p>
<p>“Mouthwash?” Dick supplies.</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>Dick walks over and opens the medicine cabinet, takes out the mouthwash. Gives it to her. He grabs a small paper cup, and gives it to her as well.</p>
<p>“Thanks.”</p>
<p>“No problem.”</p>
<p>He doesn’t know where to go, where to stand. </p>
<p>He doesn’t know where they stand. </p>
<p>Now that the worst of it is hopefully over, Dick doesn’t know what to do. His paralyzing indecision is back. Does she want him here? </p>
<p>They started sleeping together again a week ago. But they don’t talk about it. Kory comes to his room at night. They have incredible, mind blowing sex. They fall asleep on different sides of the bed. And Kory wakes and leaves before anyone else in the tower wakes up. Sometimes they talk and flirt a little before falling asleep. But never about anything serious.</p>
<p>They don’t talk about it. They don’t pretend that it’s not happening, but they don’t talk about it. About what it means. About what they mean to each other. About any limits or boundaries. How much intimacy is allowed?</p>
<p>This moment now, it’s intimate, with Kory so vulnerable. Would she rather he not be here? Is it too intimate? Is he crossing some unspoken boundary of their upspoken arrangement?</p>
<p>He doesn’t know where to stand.</p>
<p>Should he stand close to her? Would his physical presence, his body right behind her, would that provide her comfort? Or would he be crowding her? Making her feel trapped and claustrophobic?</p>
<p>Should he go stand in the bathroom doorway? Would that be best for her? To give her space and room to breathe? Or would she feel watched, examined, picked apart?</p>
<p>Does she want him here at all? Should he leave her alone? Give her privacy? Or would she feel like he was abandoning her? That he didn’t care?</p>
<p>Dick settles for taking a few steps back. Enough so that he’s not in her personal space. But not so much that he’s in the doorway far away from her.</p>
<p>Kory swishes the mouthwash in her mouth. Spits it out.</p>
<p>He doesn’t know how to comfort her. He doesn’t what she needs. But then he remembers, he can learn. He can ask.</p>
<p>“What do you need?”</p>
<p>She turns sharply to look at him, taken by surprise.</p>
<p>“I...I,” she says. Her hand goes to play with one of her rings, a nervous habit of hers, but it’s not there. She looks around the room, seemingly at a loss, before she meets his eyes. </p>
<p>“I don’t know,” she says, sounding deflated.</p>
<p>She looks so fucking lost, and it makes his chest feel like it’s getting strangled. But he has to remain steady. For her.</p>
<p>“Do you wanna talk about it?”</p>
<p>“No,” she answers quickly. “Not right now.”</p>
<p>“Do you wanna try to go back to sleep? Or we can do something as a distraction? We can watch a movie or something?” </p>
<p>Dick gestures to his laptop on his desk.</p>
<p>Kory thinks for a few moments.</p>
<p>“I think I just wanna try to go back to sleep.”</p>
<p>“Okay,” Dick says softly.</p>
<p>Dick thinks of gently grabbing her hand, and leading her towards the bed. He wants to, but doesn’t know if the action would be welcome. So they walk separately back to the bed, each going to their own side and getting in.</p>
<p>Kory lays in bed, facing away from him. Quiet. Tense.</p>
<p>Even though he can’t see her face, he can tell from her body language that she isn’t anywhere close to falling asleep.</p>
<p>He feels helpless again. It’s agonizing. Knowing she’s in pain and not knowing how to help her.</p>
<p>After about an excruciating five minutes, Kory turns over on her side to look at him. She looks nervous and unsure, in a way he’s never seen before. In a way he’s never imagined Kory, always seeming so bold and confident, could be.</p>
<p>“I need...” she trails off, swallowing nervously. “Could you hold me? Just for tonight. Don’t feel like you have to. If it makes you uncomfortable or you don’t want to, it’s fine. I’ll be fi-</p>
<p>“Kory,” Dick interrupts her rambling. “Come here.”</p>
<p>He lifts up his arm. She flashes him a grateful smile, before scooting over towards him. She lays her head on the left side of his bare chest, with her hand coming to rest on the right side. One of her legs comes to rest between his. He wraps his arm around her waist, holding her tight. He takes his other hand, and places it over the hand that’s on his chest.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Kory whispers. “For all of it.”</p>
<p>“It was nothing.”</p>
<p>“No, it wasn’t,” Kory refutes.</p>
<p>Dick doesn’t say anything to that.</p>
<p>Kory closes her eyes and nuzzles her head into chest, burrowing herself into him. She feels less tense, more comfortable than she did before. </p>
<p>He has the urge to press a kiss into her hair.</p>
<p> And, without his usual overthinking and worrying...</p>
<p> He does.</p>
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